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| What makes TiEQuest different from any other competition is the mentoring expertise offered to the participating entrepreneurs. All contestants that qualify after Project Profile stage are offered mentoring. Our panel of mentors comprise of successful entreprenueurs, senior professionals in law and accounting and other business leaders. Many of these mentors are TiE Charter Members and they all agree to devote time to guide entrepreneurs. The mentors offer criticism on the projects. Many of our mentors have been found to open their rolodex to help entrepreneurs where they need it. The following professionals volunteered their services as mentors for TiEQuest 2010:
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| Aditya Jha
Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Aditya Jha, LLD, is a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist with active involvement in public affairs. He currently manages a portfolio of businesses, and also runs several philanthropic initiatives, promoting education and nurturing entrepreneurship to equalize the access to opportunity for those less fortunate. Mr. Jha arrived to Canada in 1994, founded Isopia Inc., a Canadian success story that sold for $100 million and now currently operates software company Osellus Inc., Karma Candy and other businesses.
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| Akhil Tyagi
Area Director, MEDT, ON, Canada
Akhil Tyagi is Area Director of South Asia at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Canada where he helps Canadian organizations connect with business opportunities in the burgeoning South Asian economy. He has extensive experience helping entrepreneurs and businesses grow and prosper. Mr. Tyagi holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management and a BE from Birla Institute of Technology.
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| Amit De
Partner, NBP Ventures
Amit De is a partner at NBP Ventures, a venture advisory firm that assists early and mid stage companies maximize value by providing strategy, execution, finance and capital markets expertise. He is responsible for providing access to capital for public and private technology and non-technology firms.
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| Anin Basu
Sr. Manager Audit, KPMG
Anin Basu is a Senior Manager in the Audit Practice of KPMG. He is also heavily involved in helping non-profit organizations such as Cottage Dreams, which he is the Treasurer of, Yellow Brick House and Habitat for Humanity. Anin was born in India and now lives in Markham with his wife Sonia, and two daughters.
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| Asheet Mathur
MD, Inforica Inc.
Asheet Mathur is Managing Director of Inforica Inc, heading its delivery of ERP Solutions. With over 24 years of experience, he is one of the leading experts on PeopleSoft Finance solutions in Canada. Asheet previously spent 14 years with KPMG Consulting in the UK and Canada. Asheet is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters in Economics from University of London, England.
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| Brian Timins
Partner, Minden Gross LLP
Brian Temins is a partner at Minden Gross LLP and heads the Corporate Commercial group, focusing on M&A and private equity transactions for owner-operated businesses. He has extensive experience in asset acquisitions, investments and financing. Brian holds both an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and is actively involved in various boards for private and non-profit organizations.
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| Chander Dhawan
Consultant
Chander Dhawan is one of the leading experts in mobile computing and wireless space. He is an experienced consultant, author of two books, industry analyst, Managing Editor and Founder of MobileInfo.Com, a comprehensive information resource on the Internet for mobile computing and wireless networking. With over 30 years experience (including the first 12 years with IBM) in strategic planning, architecture development, product evaluation, and project management of enterprise-wide solutions based on emerging technologies. Chander lectures at various Universities at the graduate level, is an industry advisor to various technology startups, is a regular panelist for numerous trade shows and has published research reports and academic reports for Canadian and U.S. magazines.
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Craig Brown
Partner, Fasken Martineau
Craig Brown is a partner and Chairman of Fasken Martineau"s Private Equity Group and an active member of several other practice groups including Securities and Mergers & Acquisitions and Investment Funds. Craig focuses on advising high-growth Canadian mid market companies with a global outlook, as well as several of the leading investment dealers, merchant banks and private equity funds that provide financing to them. His expertise is in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance in both the public and private market contexts. Craig has previously served as co chair of the technology group of another major Toronto law firm. In 1994, practiced corporate finance and hedge fund law an President of a Bermuda based investment fund management and administration company. Craig is a director of several private and public companies and not for profit charitable organizations including Invest Toronto Corporation.
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Eric Trimble
Executive and Lawyer
Eric Trimble is an Executive and Lawyer with a strong history of leading the corporate development, strategic planning, legal, risk management and finance functions for various businesses while operating on site in over 40 countries. Eric has helped companies grow through strategic transactions and has successfully led more than 70 acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions in 32 countries across 6 continents. Eric holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business.
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Hari Venkatacharya
Entrepreneur
Hari Venkatacharya is a seasoned entrepreneur with over twelve years of experience in building businesses in Canada, U.S.A and India. Mr. Venkatacharya"s expertise includes operations, marketing and strategic planning. Previously, he was President of Karthika Technologies, Senior Vice President of Kasten Chase, CEO of Cyrca, and interim CEO of ZAPiT Games. Mr. Venkatacharya is President of the Toronto Chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), the world"s largest non-profit organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship. He co-founded the South Asian advisory committee at the Royal Ontario Museum and serves on the boards of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and Sampradaya Dance Creations.
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Imtiaz Seyid
VP, RBC, South Asian and Middle Eastern Markets
Imtiaz Seyid is Vice President of the Royal Bank of Canada, South Asian and Middle Eastern Markets, serving at RBC since 1989. Mr. Seyid brings a wealth of financial services industry experience and is actively involved in a number of non-profit organizations and community activities.
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Jim de Wilde
Venture Capitalist
Jim de Wilde is a venture capitalist and management educator who divides his time between Montreal and Toronto. Throughout his career as an educator and venture capitalist, Dr. Jim de Wilde has focused on the issues of global competitiveness and the commercialization of knowledge through activities in both the private sector and the public sector. Since the early 1990"s, Dr. de Wilde has also been involved in venture capital activities as President of JdW Strategic Ventures. In his venture capital activities, Dr. de Wilde was a member of RBC Capital Markets Technology Fund Advisory Board and currently serves on the Investment Committee of MSBI in Montreal and the Advisory Boards of Fusion Capital and the Walsingham Fund in Toronto. In his teaching activities, he has been on the faculty of the University Of Western Ontario School Of Business (now Ivey) and the Faculty of Management at McGill University, where he is now a Dobson Fellow in the Centre for Entrepreneurship. He has also taught venture capital strategies at the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. His B-School activities have also included applying the Rotman venture capital strategies course to the Finnish context at the Helsinki School of Economics, and lecturing at the London Business School. He has a PhD in political science from McGill with a dissertation focusing on the Canadian public policy process and competitiveness in technology sectors.
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Keith Thomas
President & CEO, Vive Nano Inc.
Keith Thomas is President and CEO of Vive Nano Inc. As a proven entrepreneur, he was most recently CEO of Vector Innovations, which was backed by a number of well regarded venture firms and successfully exited. He has led a number of large-scale projects, restructuring companies in 3 countries at New York-based Tandon Capital, managing strategy and operations projects at Booz Allen & Hamilton and completing corporate finance transactions at Citibank in the US and Europe. Mr. Thomas holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. in Economics and a B.A.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Toronto.
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Leon Goren
President, Presidents of Enterprising Organization Inc.
Leon Goren is President of PEO and has experience in elevating and leading companies like Justwhiteshirts.com from start-up to major Canadian success stories. He is Chartered Accountant and sought after speaker for business audiences on topics related to leadership and growth. He has had extensive experience advising small businesses and start-ups as a staff accountant for Coopers & Lybrand and a manager for Deloitte and Touche.
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Mahendra Naik
President & Chief Executive Officer of Yellow Online Inc.
Mahendra Naik has been associated with IAmGold Corp since March 1990 and served as Chief Financial Officer until 1999. Mr. Naik is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Yellow Online Inc. and Chief Financial Officer of the Fundeco Inc. group of companies. Prior to March 1990, Mr. Naik was a Principal at Coopers & Lybrand, Chartered Accountants. Mr. Naik has been a director of IAmGold since 2000 with significant mining and investment industry experience. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto. He is also the Audit Committee Chairman for a TSX listed base-metals company and number of private companies.
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Mala Joshi
Sr. Manager
Mala Joshi is an associate of Ridout & Maybee LLP in the firm’s Toronto office. Her practice is principally directed to intellectual property litigation, patent, trade-mark, and copyrights, and Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations. She also handles trade-mark proceedings, drafting and prosecution of trade-mark applications. Mala is an elected member of the University Council of Queen’s University at Kingston and frequently chairs and speaks on various intellectual property and litigation topics. Mala is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Patent Reporter. Mala holds an LLB from Dalahousie University and a BSC from Queen’s University.
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Maneesh Mehta
MD, MESA Investments
Maneesh Mehta is Managing Director of MESA Investments, an advisory and investment group focused on the cleantech sector. He was most recently a Partner with Deloitte where he served for 19 years in providing M&A strategy, commercial due diligence, advisory services to private equity firms and strategic buyers and growth strategies. Maneesh’s expertise is in areas, including strategy, marketing, and business operations. In particular, Maneesh has extensive experience in strategic analysis, market assessment, financial analysis, demand forecasting, and general business planning. He has been a recognized expert in the telecommunications industry, with more than 15 years’ experience in the sector, having worked extensively with major clients in North America, such as Nortel Networks, Bell Mobility, Bell Canada, and other clients in Central and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Deloitte, Maneesh worked for Nortel Networks over a period of five years in competitive and market intelligence. He holds a MASc. and a BASc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
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Mark Romoff
Mark Romoff joined the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Inc. as President and CEO in fall 2004. He is a career foreign service professional with a strong track record for advancing the competitive interests and opportunities for Canadian companies internationally. Mr. Romoff"s Foreign Service career started with assignments in Malaysia, Mexico and Nigeria. From 1992 to 1996, he was Minister-Counselor in the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo with responsibility for Canada"s trade with Japan. In 1996, he became Consul General in Buffalo, New York, where he helped improve trading relationships and established the basic policies governing cross-border trade between U.S. and Canada. In 2002 Mr. Romoff was seconded to the federal Industry department, as Executive Director of the Ontario Region. Among other things, he was responsible for building the export readiness of Ontario companies and for encouraging foreign investment in Ontario. Mr. Romoff has a B.A. in Mathematics from McGill University, and a master"s in Applied Science from the University of Waterloo. Mark and his wife, Shelley, live in Toronto with their daughter, Alana.
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Mark Stirling
President, Treadstone Associates Inc.
Mark Stirling is the President of Treadstone Associates Inc. where he assists clients with mergers and acquisitions, financing and strategic planning. Mark is a seasoned senior manager and deal maker in the technology industry with a proven track record in leading and managing start-ups, arranging financing and engineering mergers, acquisitions and turnarounds. He has held numerous executive positions for various companies in Canada and the US and has led projects in strategic consulting, systems implementations and research for some of the world’s largest companies and public sector institutes. He is a frequent public speaker on technology and business. Mark holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
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Morris Klid
CEO, Cyberbahn Group
Morris Klid is CEO of the Cyberbahn Group. An entrepreneur, Morris has been active in the registration and name search industry for over 30 years providing service and innovation to his customers. In 1984 he founded the successful Finders Research Corporation, specializing in name searches, and in 1996 he founded Cyberbahn Inc. as part of his broader concept for a more connected service for his customers. Within the community he has been active both as a Director of several condominium boards and as a Director of various community-based business associations. He was involved with the charity Children of Chernobyl and twice visited Ukraine to distribute aid as part of “Help us Help the Children’ campaign. Morris has an Economics BA from Wilfred Laurier University.
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Neena Gupta
Partner, Gowlings Lafleur Henderson LLP
Neena Gupta is a partner at Gowlings Lafleur Henderson LLP. Ms. Gupta practices in the area of litigation with an emphasis on employment and human rights matters with a wide variety of experience in matters involving the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Pay Equity Act and the Ontario Employment Standards Act. Ms. Gupta has handled complex and lengthy civil litigation, and regularly appears before all levels of the Ontario courts. Ms. Gupta has assisted a number of U.S.-based and European clients establish or expand business operations in Canada. Called to the Ontario Bar in 1989, Ms. Gupta received her LLB from Queen"s University and an LLM from the University of Toronto in 1993. Prior to joining Gowlings, Ms. Gupta practiced 15 years with a major Toronto law firm. Ms. Gupta has spoken on a wide variety of employment and litigation topics for the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian and Ontario Bar Associations, Insight Conferences, Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) and the Canadian Association of Family Enterprises (CAFE). She has developed and taught courses on employment and human rights at Seneca College and the Faculties of Law of Queen"s University and the University of Toronto. Ms. Gupta recently published Sexual Harassment: A Guide to Conducting Investigations (Butterworths – LexisNexis) and served as the Legal Reviewer for Human Resources PolicyPro (Ontario edition). Ms. Gupta is very active in the community. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and the Nomination Committee of the YWCA (Kitchener-Waterloo). She was appointed by the Attorney-General of Ontario as a governor of the Law Commission of Ontario, which focuses on law reform. In 2002, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II"s Golden Jubilee medal in recognition of her service to the legal profession and the community at large.
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Pradeep Sood
Founder, XactScribe Inc.
Pradeep Sood is the founder of XactScribe Inc., a Toronto based transcription company, using digital technology to assist clients in the medical, business and legal sectors. The company combines the advantages of an offshore centre with the expertise of North American specialists. Pradeep is also the Founder President of OutSource Process Inc., a company engaged in the provisioning and delivery of off shore Business and knowledge based IT enabled processes to small and medium sized business enterprises. He brings extensive international experience and diverse cultural knowledge to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, with over 30 years experience at both operations and management levels in Asia, Africa and North America. He Chairs OCC’s “Ontario-India Business Forum.” Pradeep was a member of the Toronto Board of Trade and is the past President of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce. He has also been a member of the Canadian Advisory Council of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a bi-national organization building intellectual and cultural linkages between Canada and India. Pradeep graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons. Economics) from Delhi University, India, holds a Chartered Accountant designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Canada.
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Peter Evans
Managing Partner, Riverdale Partners
Peter Evans provides advisory services to entrepreneurs and high growth companies, with a special focus on software and information technology. He is the Managing Partner of Riverdale Partners, an advisor for the MaRS Venture Group and an advisory board member and investor at Iotum Inc. In the past, Peter has held such positions as board member of the Toronto Venture Group and Vice President of Marketing for PlateSpin and FloNetwork (acquired by DoubleClick). Peter holds an MBA from MIT - Sloan School of Management and has bachelor’s degrees from Queen’s University and U of T.
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Puneet Girdhar
Puneet Girdhar, CEO, Cintex International (Canada) Ltd
Puneet Girdhar is President and CEO of Cintex International (Canada) Ltd, a sporting goods manufacturer and distributor. He has previously served at Deloitte Consulting in the Sporting Goods Industry. Puneet holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and has completed his BBA from University of Western Ontario.
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Dr. Rafik Loutfy
Director, Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Dr. Rafik Loutfy has served as centre director and the inaugural holder of the Walter G. Booth Chair for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation since 2004 at McMaster University. A business executive and entrepreneur, Loutfy brings 30 years of expertise in managing technology innovation to the position. Dr. Loutfy"s previous experience with Xerox Corporation included progressive management positions in research, development, business and strategy development. He also served as manager of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada where breakthrough imaging materials, research and technology for the corporation were developed. Most recently Dr. Loutfy held the position of Corporate Vice President and Director of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from the University of Toronto. Dr. Loutfy holds more than 43 patents and has published more than 166 articles.
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Rahul Petkar
CEO, Polaris Software Lab
Rahul Petkar is the CEO of Polaris Software Lab, a specialized technology solutions provider for the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance industries. Rahul has over 20 years of business experience globally with financial majors such as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and TD Waterhouse primarily in retail banking and wealth management where he has successfully developed new businesses in key markets in Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America. His experience and insights cover both the IT Outsourcing (ITO) and the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) space where he has very effectively managed one of the largest offshore sourcing relationships globally. Rahul is a Mechanical Engineer and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
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Sankar Das Gupta
CEO, Electrovaya
Sankar Das Gupta, Ph.D, DIC, is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Electrovaya. As a co-founder of the company and its predecessor, Dr. Das Gupta became chairman of the board of directors in April 1999. He has extensive experience in the field of electrochemistry and extensive business experience in the technology sector from The Electrofuel Manufacturing Company Ltd. and HSA Reactors Limited. These companies developed unique fibres and advanced ceramic materials, and designed and constructed complex instrumentation and equipment. Dr. Das Gupta holds a PhD in Electrochemistry from Imperial College, University of London and is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto.
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Sunil Sharma
Director, International Relations, CVCA
Sunil Sharma, Director of International Relations, Canada"s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and Senior Trade Commissioner for Venture Capital, Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Sunil Sharma is a rotational Foreign Service officer with Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). Sunil is in the midst of a 3-year assignment with CVCA where his mandate is to build strategic relationships with risk capital communities across the world. Sunil has recently concluded his 4-year posting as Consul and Trade Commissioner in San Diego, California and was responsible for opening one of Canada’s newest diplomatic missions. Previously, Sunil was Chief, Legislative, Regulatory and Policy Affairs at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and served as Canada’s representative to the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization’s General Assemblies in Geneva and was elected Vice-Chair of a key technical committee. Prior to his work at CIPO, Sunil served as a Senior Investment Analyst for Technology Partnerships Canada, an investment arm of the Government of Canada, where he completed several investment deals involving emerging Canadian high technology companies. Sunil possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Victoria and a Master’s of Industrial Relations degree from the University of Toronto.
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Veronika Litinski
Director, Venture Group, MaRS
Veronika is Director Venture Group for MaRS. She works with a portfolio of life science and health-care entrepreneurs at MaRS, with a particular focus on financing and corporate development. She helps entrepreneurs discover relevant and valuable applications for their technology to convert tangible ideas into businesses. Veronika has had an interesting career—from a research scientist to corporate finance. She has worked at GATX Financial as a Venture Finance, Union Bank of California in Capital Markets Group and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories as a Research Scientist. She holds an MBA (Finance) from the University of San Francisco and Bachelors in Chemistry from Moscow University.
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Victor D’Souza
MD, Reignite Capital Corp.
Victor D’Souza is Managing Director of Reignite Capital Corp. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Victor moved to Canada where he completed his BSc in Biophysics at the University of Western Ontario and a MBA at McGill University. On graduation he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with what is now Deloitte Touche. Victor then worked in corporate and investment banking with Bank of Montreal, Chase Manhattan Bank and CIBC Investment Bank. His desire to pursue a more entrepreneurial career led him to the acquisition of a bankrupt company in 1990, which he helped restart and grow to a $60 million publicly traded company. Victor then moved on to join Polyair Inter Pack Inc. as Chief Financial Officer. In April 2006 he assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer and shortly thereafter was named as its Chief Executive Officer. In October 2008 Victor left Polyair to found Reignite Capital, to focus on managing and investing in turnaround opportunities
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February 23, 2012
All successful contestants will be invited to a mentoring workshop at a downtown Toronto venue. The purpose of this workshop is to guide the contestants to improve on their venture. Many judges of the competition will be participating in the workshop
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